Module 4

Question 1

absolute monarchy

Answer 1

an authoritarian government headed by a hereditary monarch

Question 2

anti-Semitism

Answer 2

hatred and prejudice directed at people of Jewish faith or origin

Question 3

archetypal

Answer 3

classic; the example on which others are based

Question 4

atrocity

Answer 4

an act of violence or cruelty viewed as exceptionally shocking due to its nature or extent

Question 5

autarky

Answer 5

economic self-sufficiency

Question 6

authoritarianism

Answer 6

an approach to government in which the leadership is not freely elected by, or accountable to, the people it governs

Question 7

collectivization

Answer 7

the abolition of private property in favour of group or state ownership

Question 8

coup d’état

Answer 8

the forceful overthrow of a government by a small group of individuals

Question 9

cult of personality

Answer 9

a form of hero worship in which a leader is revered by followers as a model of perfection

Question 10

dictatorship

Answer 10

an authoritarian system in which power is concentrated in the hands of a single person; autocracy

Question 11

dissident

Answer 11

a person who disagrees with the government

Question 12

emancipation

Answer 12

the freeing of enslaved or indentured people

Question 13

eugenics

Answer 13

a largely discredited science of improving the human race through programs of selective breeding, sterilization, and euthanasia

Question 14

glasnost

Answer 14

a Russian word meaning “openness”; used to describe a policy instituted in the late 1980s by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

Under glasnost, debate over government policies and greater government transparency was encouraged in the Soviet Union.

Question 15

imperialism

Answer 15

a government policy that promotes the establishment of an empire, usually through military conquest

Question 16

junta

Answer 16

an oligarchy formed by a committee of military officers

Question 17

militarism

Answer 17

a government policy that promotes the development and maintenance of a powerful military in order to protect and promote a country’s national interests

Question 18

minority tyranny or minoritarianism

Answer 18

a form of oligarchy in which the government is operated by, and in the interests of, a minority group within the population

Question 19

oligarchy

Answer 19

an authoritarian system in which power is concentrated in the hands of a small ruling group or committee

Question 20

paramilitary

Answer 20

an adjective used to describe a private army or unofficial militia

Question 21

perestroika

Answer 21

a Russian word meaning “restructuring”; used to describe a period of economic reform in the late 1980s when the communist economic doctrine in the Soviet Union was questioned and modified

Question 22

theocracy

Answer 22

a system of government in which religious leaders rule

Question 23

totalitarian

Answer 23

a term used to describe a dictatorship or oligarchy that attempts to impose its control and ideological beliefs on all aspects of society

Question 24

traditionalism

Answer 24

praise for, and promotion of, the values and achievements of the past